“I had an affinity for pandas. Something about clumsy vegetarians struck a chord with me.”

“Our lips brushed,and I felt like a chord had been struck inside me, and my body was humming with a pure musical note.”

“I remember looking behind me during that song and I could see a tide of eighty thousand people bouncing up and down in unison. The crowd had transmogrified into one heaving monster and the fact that I was a part of that really struck a chord within me. I couldn't remember the last time I had been a part of something.”

“Her lips remind me of kite strings and I find myself thinking about panda bears. Panda bears do not fly kites, I tell myself. 'I thought you were dead,' she says.Maybe if you taped a kite to a panda paw and scared the panda so that it started running, the kite might start to lift off.”

“Then I began to play. Variations on a G major chord, the most wonderful chord known to mankind, infinitely happy. I could live inside a G major chord, with Grace, if she was willing. Everything uncomplicated and good about me could be summed up by that chord.”

“I don't know what it says about me that I have a greater affinity with the damaged. Probably nothing good.”